Shame – The Movie

Many of you probably saw the Newsweek cover last week on Sex Addiction. If not you can check it out on their website.

The writer of the article got interested in this topic after seeing the movie Shame. Shame just came out this past weekend in limited release and it got a NC-17 rating. I just read an interview with the director here.

In Shame actor Michael Fassbender — who starred in McQueen’s debut feature, Hunger — plays Brandon, a New York businessman who is a high-functioning sex addict, one whose life has been constructed and compartmentalized to accommodate his compulsion. But his world is turned upside down when his sister (played by Carey Mulligan) moves into his apartment for an unexpected visit. “She disrupts his ritual,” McQueen says. “He doesn’t want to have to deal with that.

Jeanette and I went and saw the movie on Saturday night. This is not your typical date night movie. We talked about this film and decided to check it out. Turns out, we were not the only ones, all the screenings in Hollywood on Saturday night were jammed pack.

I wanted to post some thoughts about this:

*The movie does an incredible job depicting someone who is dealing with sexual addition

*The movie shows that lust will never be satisfied and shows this in a disturbing turn of events on one of the binges the main character goes through.

*The movie shows how this addiction will hurt your real relationships and make it difficult to connect with your real relationships on an emotional and sexual level.

*The movie shows no hope. I have spent 10 years dealing with these issues and often time there is no hope. If you don’t want help and don’t want to make changes in your life then there is no hope. You feel for this character but the movie ends and you have no confidence he will make any changes.

*The movie is worth the NC-17 rating. None of it was sexy, it was actually all real dirty but it is very graphic.

*I would recommend it to any SPOUSE or PARENT of a sex addict. Not for entertainment purposes but to show you the severity of what your loved one is dealing with. I would not recommend it to anyone else except maybe a counselor or therapist that deals with this topic.

We know that there is hope. You don’t have to live like this and we are committed to working with people that are looking for that hope and wanting that in their lives. We are starting X3groups in the new year. If you are in LA we have a group on Tuesday nights for you. We also have a ton of resources online.